The Sexual Intimidation of the State

-- By ShefaliSingh - 29 Apr 2012

Eben, I would like comments and the opportunity to edit this essay at least once.

The Growing Police State

It is terrifying to think of my country as a police state, but this fact has only become more apparent as time goes on. Every week a new article appears about how a TSA officer thoroughly patted down a child, harassed an elderly person in her wheelchair or fulfilled the obligatory genital groping in a very intrusive way. One woman was recently reduced to tears during her pat down, because its intrusiveness reminded her of her rape experience. She said she was only given two options while standing in the security line, “either allow strangers to see her naked [on the AIT full body scanner] or allow strangers to touch and squeeze her breasts and groin in full view of other travelers and TSA agents.”

The TSA is also no longer restricted to the confines of airports. TSA Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams can be found at an increasing number of highway checkpoints and bus and train stations. Its reach seems unbounded, though one may question why they even bother even since the Supreme Court recently ruled that officials may strip search anyone arrested for any offense, not matter how minor. When individuals can be subjected to a strip search “after arrests for violating a leash law, driving without a license and failing to pay child support,” how could the U.S. not be characterized as a police state?

Spread Your Cheeks

A recent article in the Guardian described the many ways the U.S. eagerly uses sexual manipulation as a political means to control its citizens and prisoners. In between describing horrible stories of sexual abuse of prisoners at Bagram and the groping hands of TSA officers in airports, the author states, “I believe that the genital groping policy in America . . . is designed to psychologically habituate US citizens to a condition in which they are demeaned and sexually intruded upon by the state – at any moment.”

As a U.S. citizen, and specifically a woman, this observation repulses and scares me. My own government is empowering its agents to utilize intimidation and sexually degradation in order to force its citizens into compliance. A government that has spent billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives in its efforts to fight the “evil dictatorships” of non-Western states is openly using sexual intrusions to bully its people. One man, Mr. Florence, who happened to be black and driving a nice car in New Jersey, was pulled over and held for eight days for an unpaid fine—which he had actually paid and provided proof of payment when he was arrested—even though a failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey. During that time, Mr. Florence was strip-searched twice. He was forced to stand naked in front of several guards and prisoners, and then was instructed to “Turn around. Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks.” He later described the incident as “humiliating. It made me feel less than a man. It made me feel not better than an animal.”

Our government condoned this act. The police officers were empowered to strip this man of his dignity, even though no crime had been committed, based on the irrational argument that he could be “a master of becoming incarcerated though blameless, in the hope of passing along contraband to confederates waiting for him inside.” And officers across the country continue to have the power to demand that anyone arrested, not convicted, for any minor offense strip, squat and spread. The government made him feel like an animal, and made it very clear who his master was.

This degrading treatment is a powerful tool that can be used to control U.S. society, at the cost of human dignity. It is an attack on liberty through fear and intimidation. And it likely will only get worse as the government attempts to spy on and control more and more aspects of our lives, especially through the Internet. (One Internet advocate was quoted in the Guardian article as stating, “There is a race against time: they realise the internet is a tool of empowerment that will work against their interests, and they need to race to turn it into a tool of control.”)

The Law We Deserve

Is this law that we have the law we deserve? No, and I believe that even Judge Day would agree with me. No people deserve these laws, purposely designed to make individuals feel as vulnerable as possible. It is scary to think of where we are headed, of how such intrusions could get worse. How can we escape them? How can we fight back? When our branches of government refuse to “balance” each other, when our senators praise these efforts as “increasing security,” what can the people do?

I believe that it will be our responsibility, as future lawyers, to be aware of and oppose such measures either through policy work or by representing the Mr. Florence’s of the country. It will be lawyers with convictions akin to Martha Tharaud who will take a stand against such easily abused, degrading measures. They will fight to weaken the police state, and bring more laws and powers back into the control of the people. I think that now, during Law School, is the opportune moment to question what side of that debate we will choice to be on, if we choose to participate in the debate at all. It is a question that I constantly ponder, balancing the expectations of having a prestigious corporate job at a prestigious law firm with my personal indignation of increasing policing measures and general injustices. By the end of Law School, I hope I make the right choice to work towards getting us the law we actually deserve.

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